I have a slightly more cynical take -- these are all less well-subscribed books, probably not particularly lucrative for the estate. So perhaps the idea is to kill two birds with one stone: pre-emptively score points with the mob and simultaneously cut the deadweight
I was able to get pdf’s of each of the Seuss Six, and now I desperately want my 2 1/2 year old son to read On Beyond Zebra and McElligot’s Pool. Unfortunately, it seems I won’t have the option to get them from my local library:
I'd like to add my personal anecdote / eulogy for "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street". This was Seuss's first published book, and a beloved classic from my childhood. I specifically sought it out after becoming a father, and now I'm glad that I did. (Sadly, "On Beyond Zebra" is now going for a minimum of around $600 on Amazon.) "Mulberry Street" is a light-hearted story about a boy's imagination, about how he sees a simple horse-drawn wagon on the street and then starts modifying elements of the scene and adding things on, until he ends up with a little mini-parade featuring a heterogeneous jumble of characters, vehicles, and animals.
I remember reading it to my son and thinking that someday the purity police were going to come for it because of the Chinese man. So this doesn't surprise me.
But it angers me. I honestly do not understand how any reasonable person finds that picture offensive. It was not made to depict Chinese people in any negative way, unless you think wearing traditional Chinese clothing and eating traditional Chinese food is offensive. Yes, I get that it's a "stereotype" of Chinese people. So what? A stereotype doesn't have to be negative. This used to be common sense.
I propose, and I'd be interested to know if any anthropologists have insight on this, that the way mainstream America culturally criminalizes any kind of generalization or prototypical depiction of a member of a culture, ethnicity, nationality, or race, is WEIRD. But it's slightly less weird when we consider that this really only applies to certain groups. Nobody would have cared if this had been, say, a Russian person wearing a shuba. Because Russians are "white", and thus don't trigger anybody's white guilt, despite the fact that our culture has a relatively recent history of "Russia-bashing".
I don't want to downplay the concern about "othering" people - that's a legitimate concern for Americans of various stripes, particularly non-white Americans who identify as much with being American as with whatever prefix normally applies. That's fine - nobody from Pine Bluffs, Iowa wants people to ask "where are you from" because they are of Asian descent. Yet if someone is an actual immigrant (which is normally easy to tell by someone's accent), they typically are more than happy to be prompted to share their arrival story.
By the same token, it's hard to imagine an actual Chinese person of that era being offended by what would have been a fairly mundane and accurate characterization at the time. But Chinese Americans begin to see the world through Western or "white" eyes. And white people are uncomfortable even acknowledging the race of any people who once found themselves with the short end of the stick in their relationship with "the white man" (which Southeast Asian people unquestionably did between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries). So we've trained ourselves to have this "whoa, not going there!" response to anything related to non-white race or ethnicity, and non-white Americans absorb this and see offense in the utterly innocuous.
John: for your “this just in” file. The Government Financial Officer’s Association (GFOA) just announced that use of the acronym “CAFR” to describe its “Comprehensive Annual Financial Report” has now been banned by the organization for sounding similar to a historical racial epithet in Afrikaans. I would imagine that the first name of Donald Sutherland’s famous Hollywood son, as well as a certain popular probiotic yogurt will soon be in the crosshairs of this astute self-regulatory organization. HTTPS://www.gfoa.org/eta-faq
Great essay. I'm persuaded. I keep having the feeling that we're living in some Alice in Wonderland-ish figure-to-ground reversal of the 1920s, when Mencken decried what he called the "Comstockery" of the anti-saloon leaguers and other prim moralists. You are now the "conservative" and They are the Woke, a self-styled avant garde who imagine themselves the true inheritors of the Lost Generation rebels and Harlem Renaissance...I won't use the rakish word Wallace Thurman and Zora Neale Hurston used, but it rhymed with "literati." And yet, as you lay out your case, you make clear that we're dealing with a kind of philistinism here: a humorless, moralistic narrowing of human possibility.
Are these books banned or just won't be published anymore? I'm not fond of those images myself though I realize they are a product of those times. But I'm not going to lose sleep over this.
Also there is very little difference between this and Savonarola’s Bonfire of the Vanities. You can effectively burn books without actually setting them on fire these days.
It should be chilling to realize that at this point in our society that the only people who are free to speak their minds openly are those who are financially independent. Because they don’t have to be afraid that saying the wrong thing will get them fired. This is the new “equality.”
Another interesting essay by John McWhorter. Seems like those who are most focused on deploying strained racial stereotypes are not us ordinary folks, but the critical-race Elect!
Dr McWhorter, I am disappointed, but not surprised that Columbia has accepted Ounou Kanoute as a student. While at Smith College, her lies about her interactions with a cafeteria worker, a custodian and a security person resulted in them losing their jobs, becoming so stressed as to need hospitalization, and to endure slander from the Smith community. A third party investigation proved there was no racism involved on the part of the three white staff people. Kanoute was the racist in this situation, and Smith College rushed to defend her, inappropriately. Smith and Kanoute ought to be sued for racial discrimination and harassment. Until people are made to pay for this behavior, it won’t stop. That Columbia would accept her as a grad student is just another stain on this once great university’s reputation.
‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’ Dr. McWhorter. We hope we can tag along for a while longer...
I’m curious how The Elect were able to amputate these six books so deftly from the “Corpus Seuss?” I thought the “racism virus” was usually a terminal illness? Why, then, are these “woke” parishioners not marching on Springfield, Mass. to tear down a statue or two in the Seuss Memorial Garden? Where’s the commitment? Where’s the orthodoxy? The Elect are getting so soft...
Thank you, John. This is the first time that anyone quoted from Dr. Seuss books. And his rhymes and lyrics are formidable. Since, I am not American, I can't remember Dr. Seuss books from my childhood, although it is possible that I encountered one or two translations on the way.
As I said it is the first time for me that anybody finds it necessary to publish some of the lines, instead just a few pictures. I think if more people will be exposed to that wit and lyrical sharpness, the less people will find it meaningful to cancel his books.
Re "I understood the outcry when the original cut of Disney’s Aladdin movie included a tossed off joke about dismembering people for crimes."
Here is a list of countries that practice beheading as a form of punishment: Saudi Arabia, Benin, Yemen, Qatar.
Cherry on top, here is a list of countries that practice stoning as a punishment: Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria.
Also, tossing people off buildings and other places: Iran.
I grew up in San Francisco in the 50s and 60s. We visited Chinatown frequently. Chinese people wore pointed hats and colorful silk Mao style jackets. Oh! the humanity! I must be racist for remembering that observation.
Spot on!
I have a slightly more cynical take -- these are all less well-subscribed books, probably not particularly lucrative for the estate. So perhaps the idea is to kill two birds with one stone: pre-emptively score points with the mob and simultaneously cut the deadweight
I was able to get pdf’s of each of the Seuss Six, and now I desperately want my 2 1/2 year old son to read On Beyond Zebra and McElligot’s Pool. Unfortunately, it seems I won’t have the option to get them from my local library:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/3/6/22316983/dr-seuss-chicago-public-library-racist-imagery-circulation
I'd like to add my personal anecdote / eulogy for "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street". This was Seuss's first published book, and a beloved classic from my childhood. I specifically sought it out after becoming a father, and now I'm glad that I did. (Sadly, "On Beyond Zebra" is now going for a minimum of around $600 on Amazon.) "Mulberry Street" is a light-hearted story about a boy's imagination, about how he sees a simple horse-drawn wagon on the street and then starts modifying elements of the scene and adding things on, until he ends up with a little mini-parade featuring a heterogeneous jumble of characters, vehicles, and animals.
I remember reading it to my son and thinking that someday the purity police were going to come for it because of the Chinese man. So this doesn't surprise me.
But it angers me. I honestly do not understand how any reasonable person finds that picture offensive. It was not made to depict Chinese people in any negative way, unless you think wearing traditional Chinese clothing and eating traditional Chinese food is offensive. Yes, I get that it's a "stereotype" of Chinese people. So what? A stereotype doesn't have to be negative. This used to be common sense.
I propose, and I'd be interested to know if any anthropologists have insight on this, that the way mainstream America culturally criminalizes any kind of generalization or prototypical depiction of a member of a culture, ethnicity, nationality, or race, is WEIRD. But it's slightly less weird when we consider that this really only applies to certain groups. Nobody would have cared if this had been, say, a Russian person wearing a shuba. Because Russians are "white", and thus don't trigger anybody's white guilt, despite the fact that our culture has a relatively recent history of "Russia-bashing".
I don't want to downplay the concern about "othering" people - that's a legitimate concern for Americans of various stripes, particularly non-white Americans who identify as much with being American as with whatever prefix normally applies. That's fine - nobody from Pine Bluffs, Iowa wants people to ask "where are you from" because they are of Asian descent. Yet if someone is an actual immigrant (which is normally easy to tell by someone's accent), they typically are more than happy to be prompted to share their arrival story.
By the same token, it's hard to imagine an actual Chinese person of that era being offended by what would have been a fairly mundane and accurate characterization at the time. But Chinese Americans begin to see the world through Western or "white" eyes. And white people are uncomfortable even acknowledging the race of any people who once found themselves with the short end of the stick in their relationship with "the white man" (which Southeast Asian people unquestionably did between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries). So we've trained ourselves to have this "whoa, not going there!" response to anything related to non-white race or ethnicity, and non-white Americans absorb this and see offense in the utterly innocuous.
Off topic: 03/05/21 YouTube with Glenn, you mentioned a 400 page book by Jared Diamond. Which of his books were you talking about?
John: for your “this just in” file. The Government Financial Officer’s Association (GFOA) just announced that use of the acronym “CAFR” to describe its “Comprehensive Annual Financial Report” has now been banned by the organization for sounding similar to a historical racial epithet in Afrikaans. I would imagine that the first name of Donald Sutherland’s famous Hollywood son, as well as a certain popular probiotic yogurt will soon be in the crosshairs of this astute self-regulatory organization. HTTPS://www.gfoa.org/eta-faq
Great essay. I'm persuaded. I keep having the feeling that we're living in some Alice in Wonderland-ish figure-to-ground reversal of the 1920s, when Mencken decried what he called the "Comstockery" of the anti-saloon leaguers and other prim moralists. You are now the "conservative" and They are the Woke, a self-styled avant garde who imagine themselves the true inheritors of the Lost Generation rebels and Harlem Renaissance...I won't use the rakish word Wallace Thurman and Zora Neale Hurston used, but it rhymed with "literati." And yet, as you lay out your case, you make clear that we're dealing with a kind of philistinism here: a humorless, moralistic narrowing of human possibility.
Are these books banned or just won't be published anymore? I'm not fond of those images myself though I realize they are a product of those times. But I'm not going to lose sleep over this.
Also there is very little difference between this and Savonarola’s Bonfire of the Vanities. You can effectively burn books without actually setting them on fire these days.
It should be chilling to realize that at this point in our society that the only people who are free to speak their minds openly are those who are financially independent. Because they don’t have to be afraid that saying the wrong thing will get them fired. This is the new “equality.”
Another interesting essay by John McWhorter. Seems like those who are most focused on deploying strained racial stereotypes are not us ordinary folks, but the critical-race Elect!
Dr McWhorter, I am disappointed, but not surprised that Columbia has accepted Ounou Kanoute as a student. While at Smith College, her lies about her interactions with a cafeteria worker, a custodian and a security person resulted in them losing their jobs, becoming so stressed as to need hospitalization, and to endure slander from the Smith community. A third party investigation proved there was no racism involved on the part of the three white staff people. Kanoute was the racist in this situation, and Smith College rushed to defend her, inappropriately. Smith and Kanoute ought to be sued for racial discrimination and harassment. Until people are made to pay for this behavior, it won’t stop. That Columbia would accept her as a grad student is just another stain on this once great university’s reputation.
‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’ Dr. McWhorter. We hope we can tag along for a while longer...
I’m curious how The Elect were able to amputate these six books so deftly from the “Corpus Seuss?” I thought the “racism virus” was usually a terminal illness? Why, then, are these “woke” parishioners not marching on Springfield, Mass. to tear down a statue or two in the Seuss Memorial Garden? Where’s the commitment? Where’s the orthodoxy? The Elect are getting so soft...
Thank you, John. This is the first time that anyone quoted from Dr. Seuss books. And his rhymes and lyrics are formidable. Since, I am not American, I can't remember Dr. Seuss books from my childhood, although it is possible that I encountered one or two translations on the way.
As I said it is the first time for me that anybody finds it necessary to publish some of the lines, instead just a few pictures. I think if more people will be exposed to that wit and lyrical sharpness, the less people will find it meaningful to cancel his books.
Re "I understood the outcry when the original cut of Disney’s Aladdin movie included a tossed off joke about dismembering people for crimes."
Here is a list of countries that practice beheading as a form of punishment: Saudi Arabia, Benin, Yemen, Qatar.
Cherry on top, here is a list of countries that practice stoning as a punishment: Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria.
Also, tossing people off buildings and other places: Iran.
Just making note.
I grew up in San Francisco in the 50s and 60s. We visited Chinatown frequently. Chinese people wore pointed hats and colorful silk Mao style jackets. Oh! the humanity! I must be racist for remembering that observation.